'Blooms of Darkness' book review: Time lets love grow for two

Hugo Mansfeld is 11 when his mother, Julia, hides him in the closet of a brothel, so the Nazis will not find him. World War II is ending, but she, a Jew, knows she will be taken to one of the camps. Mariana Podgorsky, Julia’s Ukrainian friend, promises to protect Hugo as she goes about her business of servicing German soldiers.

The tedium of the days becomes real as the sparse narrative inches along. Always fearful, Hugo should read and study, but instead he eavesdrops on life in the adjacent bedroom and dreams of his peaceful past — his parents who owned a pharmacy and cared for the poor, their wonderful vacations in the mountains.

Other women who work in the brothel discover him; some try to befriend him, but he entrusts himself to Mariana, despite her addiction to alcohol and manic-depressive outbursts. They talk about God a lot — his Jewish deity and her Christian one.

When the Russians come, Hugo and Mariana leave the “Residence” and wander until they reach Hugo’s hometown. There, Hugo realizes that his life has changed forever.

Appelfeld, a 77-year-old Israeli novelist, wrote “Blooms of Darkness” in 2006. He was a war orphan who once roamed the countryside in search of shelter. Twenty years later, he was reunited with his father but had lost the mother he hardly knew.

Translated from Hebrew, this is a haunting story of the love that blooms between this troubled woman and a boy who, passing 1½ years hidden away, dreams of his mother and fears for his future.